Abbeville boys defend parish title

DELCAMBRE - The Abbeville Wildcats felt slighted when the coaches ranked the teams before the parish tournament began. Abbeville, the defending parish champs, was ranked No. 2, and North Vermilion was ranked No. 1.
The two teams met in the finals of the parish tournament on Thursday, and Abbeville cruised to a 72-48 victory to claim its second parish title in a row.
Abbeville High Assistant Basketball Coach Randolph Spencer said the team used the No. 2 ranking as inspiration to win the tournament.
“In all fairness, whoever ranked the teams, we thought did Abbeville an injustice,” said AHS assistant basketball coach Randolph Spencer. “We were the defending parish champs. It is my understanding of organizational structure, we should have been number one.”
Spencer said his players just wanted to prove that they were the number one team in the parish. They did exactly that.
The Wildcats jumped on North Vermilion in the first quarter with a team effort. Five different players scored to give AHS a 13-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Jymyri Evans led AHS in the first quarter with six points.
For all four quarters, most of Abbeville’s points came off fast break lay-ups.
Juvontae Decuir scored nine of his 15 points in the second period. His shots helped put Abbeville ahead, 19-4, at the 7-minute mark in the second period.
As the buzzer sounded for halftime, Decuir nailed a long-range 3-pointer to make it 32-14.
Many of Abbeville’s fast-break points came because of its pressure defense. They would put pressure on the player with the ball to force a turnover.
“Our defense is very tenacious,” said Spencer. “Our offense comes off of our defense.”
North Vermilion managed to put together a good third quarter and outscored Abbeville 18-16.
With 2:22 left in the third period, North Vermilion closed to within 13 points after Jaylon Miller’s three points made it 41-28.
Not long after that, AHS went on a 7-0 run thanks to a pressure defense.
When the quarter was over, the Wildcats led 48-28.
The fourth period was pretty much the same as the other three quarters.
Nadaedrion Mouton of Abbeville nailed back-to-back 3-pointers at the start of the fourth period. It pretty much sealed the victory.
Mouton made 10 points and Decuir led with 14 for Abbeville.
Other scorers were Jacoby Senegal (9), Coy Darby Jr. (6), Jymyri Evans (7), Matt Johnson (6), DeMarcus Collins (4), Jahidi White (5) and Jadyn Mitchell (2).
North Vermilion did not have anyone score in double digits.
Dade Dieterich, Malik Criner, Ryan Broussard and Miller each made seven points. Other scorers for NV were Blake Turner (4), Grant Dardar (2), Tyler Galley (3), Dreylan Adams (5), Brent Hollier (2), Bailey LeLeux (1), and Creed Rudd (3).